Big News, Folks!!!
Announcing my latest design, LOVE WELL!!!!!
This colorful, Pride inspired, 80s-cartoon-nodding illustration featuring the words 'Love Well', in script, is decked with clouds, a rainbow, diamond-shaped twinkles and a heart or two. I created it in the hopes that it may inspire and remind in a direct, light, yet poignant, manner to not only love, but LOVE WELL.
The concept has been on my mind for some time and manifested in this piece as well as in the following poem:
'Love Well'
Love.
But Love Well.
Love imperfectly.
Be scared and love anyway.
Love with passion.
Love with your whole self.
With wisdom
And empathy
And equity.
Love with curiosity and creativity.
Love with vulnerability.
Love with ferocious tenderness
And enduring patience.
Grow in love,
And nurture it.
Strive to understand ALL that love is,
And ALL that love is not.
Love, but LOVE WELL.
As a visualized message, i really enjoy the idea of 'Love' being portrayed as a color explosion of hearts and glitter and big fluffy radiance. But unto itself, that expression seems flat and un-nuanced and a disservice to what i consider to be many intrinsic hallmarks of the nature of Love.
To avoid getting mired in the voluminous definitions of Love, for me, it's important to allow for a certain degree of personal definition. There are, of course, at least several definitions often attributed to Love that may cloud it's true understanding. Therefore, while ever-evolving, determining for myself the delineation between all of the sundry things called Love, and what i personally consider Loving Well is of the utmost importance.
It's with this in mind that 'LOVE WELL', the image (and 'Love Well' the poem), was born. In qualifying 'Love' by adding 'Well' i'm attempting to subvert the blanket idea of perpetuating the two-dimensional encouragement to Love no matter what or how, and proselytize instead the imperative to first consider with a critical eye what Love is for one's self, and then pursue the development and practice of one's best version of it. This, hopefully leads collectively to a rainbow of unique interpretations not wholly unlike those rainbows symbolizing LGBTQ+ Pride and the many varieties of gender and sexuality they represent. As i explore and strive to understand the shades and tints of how we define and realize ourselves, and how expansive those parameters may truly extend, Loving Well, and all it's facets, may be a connection we can all share inclusive of our innumerable differences, strengthening understanding of and care for one another.
By including the qualifier 'Well' in the happy and vibrant visualized message of 'Love' i aim to strike a balance between provoking consideration of the concept of what it is to Love Well and celebrating the vast totality of all that may be derived from it's application. I also just really like the aesthetic.
Please enjoy, and please Love Well.